


Embrace

by AkelaKela



Series: Liam Dunbar [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: And he's cool with it, Angst, Bobby Finstock - Freeform, Coach - Freeform, Coach Finstock - Freeform, Coach is supportive, Coach knows, Gen, Hurt Liam, Hurt Liam Dunbar, Islamophobia, Pack Dynamics, Pack Feels, Pack Support, Racism, Teen Wolf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 00:53:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11909826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkelaKela/pseuds/AkelaKela
Summary: Leila comforts Liam after being beaten in 6x14./How 6x14 would have gone if Leila was there.





	Embrace

An elbow hit Liam in the back and he groaned in pain. He could hear Mason and Corey begging the mob to stop, to him go. He could hear the whispers of the other kids around him as they stood on and watched. He could smell the stink of fear and hatred rolling off Nolan and his gang as they took turns hitting him as hard as they could. Light flashed across his vision in bits and pieces. The face of Mrs Finch, looking down at him.

Why isn't she doing anything? He can feel his control slipping with every passing second, fear and anger acidic on his tongue.

Nolan snarling in his face. Gabe's shoe before it slams into his jaw. 

The sounds are beginning to fade away when he hears a shout. 

"What the hell is going on here?" Coach demands, pushing through the crowd before stopping up short. He hauls the two boys off Liam and shoves them out of the door, still yelling.

" **Get out!** All of you! I can't stand to look at your faces!"

"Liam? Liam!" A girl in a purple headscarf and nose ring pushed through the leaving crowd and gasped when she saw him. She, Mason and his other friend hoisted him up between them as Coach looked on in disbelief. 

"We've got him Coach." Mason said as they started to the door.

Bobby Finstock followed the trio down the hall. 

"Are you okay? What did they do to you Liam?" The girl asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"They beat him up because they wanted to-" Mason stopped, glancing back, and, seeing Coach Finstock, fell silent.

 Bobby Finstock had never felt so angry in his entire life. He stalked down the hall behind the group of children, unable to wipe the image of the kid in front of him, lying helpless on the floor, taking a beating. And he was fairly sure that he knew why. 

The sudden disappearances, tardiness and frequent absences of a certain group of students was in no way lost on him. Their strange involvement with every past case of murder or animal attack in the school was suspicious enough.

He's tried to convince himself that he was crazy, that it had been shock or that he just didn't remember. But he did. The arrow that had pierced his chest should have hurt a lot more than it did. And he wasn't that out of it, was he? He'd felt the pain suddenly disappear the moment Mccall's hand was in his. He'd tried to pull Isaac Lahey off Ethan, but he'd been deaf to anyone but Scott. One order from the boy and he'd dropped the bloodied schoolmate's collar and stalked off.

He'd caught glimpses of them. Eyes that he'd chalked up to the glare of the floodlights. Suspicious tears in the lacrosse gloves. He wasn't as stupid as he wished he was. He knew who these children were and he couldn't stand to see them be punished for it.

He stopped walking. 

"Hey! Hey!" The flinched, turning around.

Coach beckoned them down the hallway to the gyms. And held the door of his office open for them.

"Here. Clean him up." He held out an ancient first aid kit. 

"Why...?" All three of them looked at him questioningly.

"That is one of the best players on my team." He pointed straight at Liam. "I'll be damned if I let anything happen to him."

-

Liam was slumped in the office chair, his head resting on the wall behind it as Leila and Corey wiped the blood from his face. He hissed when the alcohol dripped into an open cut or winced when a bruise was pressed too hard, but no words left his lips.

"You did good Liam." Corey broke the uneasy silence.

"I almost lost control. If Coach hadn't shown up when he did-"

"But you didn't and he did. That's all that matters." Mason broke in.

"Listen to me Liam. You took a beating today. It wasn't just for you. It was for all of us. We should have been there to protect you." Leila wiped his nose gently.

"No-it's-it's my fault. I exposed us in the first place."

"Your friends were murdered Liam. I know what that feels like to watch people die. None of this is your fault."  

"I should've realised it was a trap. If I had Brett and Lori would still be alive." His voice broke and his eyes fluttered closed against gathering tears. He had barely moved in all the time that his packmates had been tending to him. He sat almost motionless in the chair, his arms hanging limp by his sides. His face was expressionless, his eyes steadily staring numbly ahead.

"Don't blame yourself. You did everything you could. They were destined to leave this world that night."

Leila bit back the rest of her sentence, afraid of preaching at the boy in front of her.

"I'm not human." It left his lips almost a whisper, but Leila's ears were sharp and tuned into his racing heartbeat. She heard every syllable. The realisation had hit him hard.

"Yes, you are. But you're so much more than that." Leila turned to chuck away the bloody cotton into the full wastebasket. Corey placed a slim hand on Liam's shoulder. Liam didn't even raise his eyes. He sat there dumbly, his eyes unfocused.

"You're a good guy Liam." Corey said softly, stroking his shoulder. "You'll do right by Brett and Lori and every other person that they've murdered."

Liam closed his eyes and dropped his head, his shaggy hair shielding his face from view. 

"Look at me Liam." Leila knelt down in front of him, searching his face. What she found was all too familiar. His blue eyes were swimming in tears, his hands clenched in his lap. She pressed a gauze pad into his bloody palms.

"People have always been like this and they always will be. They will always be afraid. They will always fear what they cannot understand. It doesn't matter who you are. I was human for a very long time. That never mattered to anyone. When I was 12 and Shahid was thirteen he came home with a black eye, a broken nose and two cracked ribs. Three kids beat him up." Liam could hear the bones in her fingers creak as she clenched her fists. 

"I was twelve when Tommy Morrison decided it would be funny to pull off my hijab during gym class and not give it back. He waved it around for ages until I cried." She paused, swallowing the emotion rising thick in her throat. She could remember the burning shame all too well, how helpless she'd felt when people actually started to laugh and point. The burning tears sliding down her cheeks as she begged him to just _give it back_. 

"I couldn't change myself. I couldn't change the colour of my skin. The way I talked. The way I dressed. One good thing came out of all that shit. I realised something. I _didn't_ _want_ to change myself." She looked deep into his eyes. And he looked back.

"You're better than them Liam." She let her face curl up into a small smile. "They're afraid of you because of the power that you have."

"What if I don't deserve to have it?" His brow furrowed and Mason could see tears beginning to collect.

"Tell me something. How many times have you risked your life? For your pack? Your friends? Your town?"

"I-I didn't-"

"Yes you did. The Dread Doctors, the Ghost Riders. You've saved these people so many times over. God gave you this power. And I don't believe that he makes mistakes. You're a good person Liam. You're better than all of them Liam. Being human is overrated. They're all human. And I don't see them doing God's work."

"People will always hate you. And there's nothing you can do about that. Just don't ever let them make you hate yourself." Leila's hand hovered over his bloody one for a second before she grabbed it, squeezing hard.

"We're your pack, Liam." Mason laid a hand on Liam's shoulder, meeting his eyes when his friend looked up for just a second before he reached up, and in one motion trapped him in a bone-crushing hug. 

Leila bit her lip, dabbing the unshed tears from her own eyes as she heard Liam's muffled sobs.

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this little thingy. It's tied to my other fic "Lone Wolf" which isn't done yet, but I was struck by inspiration, so I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
